It is recommended to put historians in as they help serve as evidence and also show that your argument is actually valid however, it is possible to do alright without using any historians, but you will still need to provide evidence
I would say the best historians are the ones that are valid and respected historians and help you argue your point. As this is modern history I don't think you really need to go that deep into the different perspectives of each historian as that's more of a history extension thing I believe